PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

Started by GEWALTMONOPOL, December 15, 2009, 09:30:59 PM

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doll

Some of my favorites from recent purchases and trades

Himukalt - Vulgar
One of my favorites from Himukalt. Dark, moody, slow moving electronics with plenty of dirt. Very hypnotic throughout with loops syncing in and out of eachother, Vocals buried in effects that move in and out of focus, brooding drones, and sheets of static noise fighting against disembodied vocal samples. I really love how dynamic this album is. One of those releases that doesn't drag in any capacity, but doesn't rely on a high energy non stop noise assault to keep you interested. There are plenty of highs and lows of this album and they all feel perfectly placed, giving you a chance to process the more intense moments over a contemplative atmosphere, before grabbing you by the hair and forcing you back into the filth. One of my favorite aspects of this project is the collages that she creates. Her collages pair perfectly with the noise, are extremely well excecuted, and stylistically are very unique. The digipack features some very beautiful collages on front and back, and then the included booklet with artwork, tracklist, and a wonderful explaination of the Voyeur Tapes tracks. I loved being able to enjoy the artwork while listening, for me it made an already solid album that much better. Overall a killer, well put together album.

Kjostad - Environment Electronics
First time hearing this album. I am familiar with other works from this project and have always really enjoyed the approach that they take. With Environment Electronics i'm not hearing anything really new in sound or style than other things I have heard from them, but regardless it is a solid release that stands up well to the rest of what I have heard. Brutally beautiful, occasionally serene, aggressively textural, and overall crushing in a way that is extremely unique and surprisingly relaxing. I found myself wanting to replay the album over moments after it finished. This album is satisfying from the first track to the last, leaving me with a feeling of a beautiful forest burning, turning to ash, and then bursting with new life again. A cycle that repeats itself throughout the album, consistently overlapping and breaking expected patterns, taking you above the trees for a birds eye view, into the dirt with the fungi, and down to the bottom of an ice cold lake framed with trees. I can't wait to go home and play this album again, and explore some more of Kjostad's discography. Both amazing reissues from Found Remains.

Carbonized Organs / Niku Daruma Split
Nothing unexpected from the artists on this split. Clumsy, violent, blood soaked harsh noise of the utmost intensity. Best played at the loudest volume possible, drugged out in your bathroom, surrounded by kitchen knives and bloody bandages. These 2 projects compliment each other so well to the point that even after hearing the split multiple times, I forget exactly who I am hearing in some moments. This is one of those releases that wastes no time grabbing you by the throat in the first seconds, only tightening its grip as the tracks progress, and letting you go to wonder how the fuck you are still alive. This split is a highlight in both artists' already solid discographies and I can't wait to give it more plays.

Climax Denial - Absurd Object
Consistently one of my favorite artists for the past few years. This 3 track release echoes MB style synth lines that repeat into redundancy, forcing you to focus on the details of what you are hearing. Hypnotic, intoxicating, sterile, and unsettling are some words that come to mind for this release. Alex really lives up to the name Climax Denial with this slow burning collection of tracks, consistently bringing you close to satisfaction, and taking it away with no remorse, leaving you wanting more and more until the vocals come in on the final track finally losing the feeling of restraint, while still maintaining an air of discipline.
baby doll
I am your dog

Andrew McIntosh

Brizbomb I've found to be not the easiest of projects to keep up with, which is a pity as I greatly enjoy Matt Brislawn's real-time, modular synth, fully textured drones. Only recently got "1107", put out by Fabrica. The final track, "110725W2056", is a comparatively short piece of harder-edged tonal blocks but the album for the most part is pieces of semi-improvised layers of modulated drone tracks. Powerful sounding synthesis.
Shikata ga nai.

Found Remains

QuoteSome of my favorites from recent purchases and trades

Himukalt - Vulgar
One of my favorites from Himukalt. Dark, moody, slow moving electronics with plenty of dirt. Very hypnotic throughout with loops syncing in and out of eachother, Vocals buried in effects that move in and out of focus, brooding drones, and sheets of static noise fighting against disembodied vocal samples. I really love how dynamic this album is. One of those releases that doesn't drag in any capacity, but doesn't rely on a high energy non stop noise assault to keep you interested. There are plenty of highs and lows of this album and they all feel perfectly placed, giving you a chance to process the more intense moments over a contemplative atmosphere, before grabbing you by the hair and forcing you back into the filth. One of my favorite aspects of this project is the collages that she creates. Her collages pair perfectly with the noise, are extremely well excecuted, and stylistically are very unique. The digipack features some very beautiful collages on front and back, and then the included booklet with artwork, tracklist, and a wonderful explaination of the Voyeur Tapes tracks. I loved being able to enjoy the artwork while listening, for me it made an already solid album that much better. Overall a killer, well put together album.

Kjostad - Environment Electronics
First time hearing this album. I am familiar with other works from this project and have always really enjoyed the approach that they take. With Environment Electronics i'm not hearing anything really new in sound or style than other things I have heard from them, but regardless it is a solid release that stands up well to the rest of what I have heard. Brutally beautiful, occasionally serene, aggressively textural, and overall crushing in a way that is extremely unique and surprisingly relaxing. I found myself wanting to replay the album over moments after it finished. This album is satisfying from the first track to the last, leaving me with a feeling of a beautiful forest burning, turning to ash, and then bursting with new life again. A cycle that repeats itself throughout the album, consistently overlapping and breaking expected patterns, taking you above the trees for a birds eye view, into the dirt with the fungi, and down to the bottom of an ice cold lake framed with trees. I can't wait to go home and play this album again, and explore some more of Kjostad's discography. Both amazing reissues from Found Remains.

Thank you so much for the thoughtful and well written reviews.

Bloated Slutbag

See bottom of this post for digest commentary.

Pieces – Pieces 12" + c30
Kakerlak, Redneck, Oscillating Innards. That's more sound than ought rightfully be permitted to occupy a single point in space-time. Sound, big fat raging masses of it, truckloads, boatloads, buttloads, densely layered, violent, abrasive, to inundate and overwhelm the senses, the sensibilities, to blot out the sky, the earth, the 'holes, the reason, the being. Hell, cram in hole enough of Le Shit and you may well blot out the noise itself. Well, okay, I'm probably getting carried away.

There ought at least to be little question as to the mastery of form being wrought. First of all, White Centipede Noise says so. Second, I don't need a second. But if that were desired, here's Sam McKinlay:

KEEP INDUSTRIAL OUT OF HARSH NOISE

That's the kernal of it. Inside the big box specially designed to contain all them fat raging sound masses, a somewhat elaborated iteration of the "possibly controversial ideas" on display. I'm not getting into it, but regardless of how you may feel about a less potentially abrasive re-presentation of recognizably domestic sound, it is hard to resist the sheer power and timing resulting in the masterful avalanches, subtle peaks, falls, and overwhelming crunching of le shit. Resisting here again the urge to flop out the "academic" descriptor, but it's hard to deny the insanely focused attention to the most elementary of harsh particles, diving deep, deep, into textural study of the most abrasive intricacies of scorch, crunch, and sphinct-rupture. Densely clustered angularity blown out and shattered and into tiny, twitching, bits. Pieces.

Pieces, the twelve inch incarnation, dates from a single 2014 session, origins about which it's probably best not to speculate. Misery loves company and misery loves noise. Especially harsh noise. With some extra despondency on the side. But no, that's a bit harsh. Net results are far too exuberant, far too vicious, delighting far too much in their straight-for-the-throat sphinct-choking furies. Slathering orgies of all-out crunch-`splosive ear-trauma, laying waste to the foundations, indelicately scooping out noisebrain, splattering against the wall, and staying there, brutally smooshed, for the duration. Now you know how one of Professor McKinlay's ballet slippers feels.

The initial blackened crunch-bludger makes it clear where we are headed: nowhere, fast, shattered bits and pieces poking out at insane angles, choked blurts and gristles burnt raw in the strangling heat. Halfway through the A side and a marked effort to smear the dis-semblage with oscillating sludger-flood of whitewashed seethe-tremble, but of course no clear winner is apt to emerge from the agitating clusterfuck competing for attention. Hilariously apposite, a break precisely when the attention is most focused on where in fuck this is going. The B, therefore, kicks off at almost opposed angles to the A, wash of drilling blister-scorch fairly hacking at dry, grit-iron, shredwalls, even as the sludge-rumbling outliers threaten to crumble in to crash the party. This actually does happen at a critical juncture, just when a searing series of scorch-slathers is cleared to win the way. In the climactic ending moments, a brief flatline to signal push for total slitting of singularity, end.

Pieces, the c30 incarnation first coalescing circa 2012, delivers the goods in more straight-forward, live-through-the-amps fashion. Here room acoustics get in on the action, and with them a more open-aired, clearly delineated, rumble-heavy perspective. Feedback-flecked metallic screech takes advantage of the open airs to soar high above the low-lying, densely packed, thunder-surge, midrange micromovements swallowed up in the tightly-regulated rush, voiciferously voiced harshvoices lending their bung-curdled urgings. Those of nominally righteous conviction may perceive in the immediacy a more physical dimension, not to mention a more pure and unfettered commitment to shredding hole. Certainly, in the immediate afterburn, more likelihood of causing in the aural passages the permanent damage they more than likely crave.

I'll say it: the c30 sounds less visionary, if you will, than the 12" successor. Or at least, less clearly to be perceived as envisioning of dedication to going to that other-other level. (The deluxe format with McKinlay dissertation wouldn't hurt perceptions). Put otherwise: c30- Alright let's make some fucking noise. Twelve-inch- Alright we've made some fucking noise. What have we learned? PAY ATTENTION SLUTBAG. ...um sorry? Where was I? Oh right. Well, less visionary, perhaps, but no less potent. Perfect complement, in fact, to-
CLASS DISMISSED.

Digest spew
No academics we, just supreme examplars of power through knowledge and study. Pieces, the c30, is an almost perfect encapsulation of everything ever to be needed from sound, artistic and otherwise. Exceedingly dense, heavy, harsh, rich in texture, relentlessly drilling straight through skull with all requisite force and damage, no let ups no bullshit no question as to the edumucatedness on tap. But that can all take a fat flying leap when the twelve inch hits the noise fan, smack dab in the kisser, meaty impact resonating in the surprisingly rough, ripped, ragged chokes of dry-shredded blurt and gristle, burnt raw in the sphinct-strangling heat, shattered fractals, pieces, poking out at insane angles, the learn-ed sages of crunch-'splosive ear-trauma elevating to the next level by diving down, deep, to the elementary core, harsh particles savagely ruptured in the violently dis-shevelled abrasion.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

Bloated Slutbag

#7774
Jackman – Silence In That Time
Here it is, BAM! And you say goddamn, this is yet another iteration of the seemingly unending series of Amen. Sanctus. Omega. Sorow. Raven. Herbstsonne. And now Silence In That Time. At least, the title is longer. Three extra words. Significant, that. There is almost no question in my mind that Jackman (without the D this time, so maybe that's also real significant) is taking the piss. There's nothing more to say on it. Taking the piss.

But he can afford to, and I can take it. I mean, he can take it, and I can take his taking of it. I'm not sure how much longer, surely no more than another decade or two, but I can take it. Gladly. Gratefully. Just unzip flop it out and off you go good sire!

Okay, well, there's almost no question that a certain amount of alcohol is speaking- for me- at this moment. Maybe I'll feel differently in the morning. Maybe come daylight the nth iteration of organ, bells, and the latest- crows-  will somehow hit in a different way. Hit the right notes, the right chords.

Okay, so here's an observation. Bar Sorow, which is still well above and beyond anything else of relatively recent note, this would easily top the relatively recent list. Or could at least duke it out with Herbstonne...which of course is merely an extended mix, if very fine extended mix, of one fragment of Omega. Etc. This here, this Silence, is the master-mix. All the organ bell and crow you could want, flowing into itself with a pleasing regularity that, simply, pleases. Quite gorgeous, taking of the piss, on which to gorge the self-disgusted sensibility. Because, let's face it, that sensibility is fucked.

edit
Thank you sire may I please have some more!
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

Bloated Slutbag

Quote from: Andrew McIntosh on February 22, 2020, 01:07:23 PM
Have finished listening to Calineczka's epic "Music not for Airports" from Attenuation Circuit, nearly seven hours of pure synthesised minimal drone absence. In fact, sounds like some of the more layered and intense of his releases so far. Now just going through "Pora Deszczów", which has a lighter touch, with the odd different flourish, a bit closer to eleh's sound.

I don't know if I have, or anyone else has, posted about Ścisław Dercz's Important Drone Records here before, but just in case, all the downloads are very cheap (the tapes usually sell out pretty quickly from the looks of things).

https://importantdronerecords.bandcamp.com

Very very good, thank you.

It, all, has proven an exceptionally satisfying rabbit hole to disappear down, Music not for Airports in particular. The final, lengthy track (not) on Airports is the one that is currently massaging the holes and is, simply, divine. (And not imperfect counterpoint to all the harsh-ass shit that's been otherwise raping the 'holes if that's at all worthy of mention.)

More recommendations along these lines would be very welcome.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

Andrew McIntosh

Nice to see a few more people digging the drone. It's a bit of a love or hate thing I suppose.

Recently I've been getting back into the sounds of Alleypisser. Pretty much from the Jeph Jerman school of noise creation, although often building pieces up to crescendos more along the lines of the metal bashers. Often a nice grimy sound, low on the high end, and as much electronic source as acoustic. More emphasis on sinister than bluster. At some stage I might listen to some of Mikkel Rørbo's post Alleypisser material, but right now this is enough for me. He was interviewed in SI #9.
Shikata ga nai.

totalblack

Quote from: Andrew McIntosh on February 28, 2020, 06:14:11 AM
Nice to see a few more people digging the drone. It's a bit of a love or hate thing I suppose.

Recently I've been getting back into the sounds of Alleypisser. Pretty much from the Jeph Jerman school of noise creation, although often building pieces up to crescendos more along the lines of the metal bashers. Often a nice grimy sound, low on the high end, and as much electronic source as acoustic. More emphasis on sinister than bluster. At some stage I might listen to some of Mikkel Rørbo's post Alleypisser material, but right now this is enough for me. He was interviewed in SI #9.

I've also been revisiting a lot of his material in the last several weeks. Honestly if you like Alleypisser it's worth it to listen to the Knækkede Stemmer material, I like it more overall. The LP on Järtecknet, the Lust Vessel tape, and the one that I released are all excellent. A bit more developed but same ideas. He's working on some new material for the last while as well, which has been sounding promising.

Zeno Marx

Speaking of Jackman and minimalism, Rhys Chatham - Two Gongs 1971 has been a real pleaser the past couple of days.
"the overindulgent machines were their children"
I only buy vinyl, d00ds.

HESalvo

#7779
King Dude - "Music To Make War To"
Kind of hard to review because I can't seem to recall a single fucking thing after it has finished playing. I'll tell you this certainly is not music for war, it should have been titled "Music for getting topped by a slack jawed neo-fascigoth to". I can already guess which platitudes Pitchfork dorks would use to describe this; "cold, longing, somber." The reality is that it's laborious and trite and it's lifelessness isn't a positive. It's a good representation of the absolute bankruptcy of this genre. This is the type of guy who would probably use a totenkompf as a profile picture, fucking dweeb....oh wait.


HESALVO (formerly PureStench) : http://hesalvo.weebly.com

Bloated Slutbag

Quote from: totalblack on February 28, 2020, 11:27:35 AM
Quote from: Andrew McIntosh on February 28, 2020, 06:14:11 AM
Nice to see a few more people digging the drone. It's a bit of a love or hate thing I suppose.

Recently I've been getting back into the sounds of Alleypisser. Pretty much from the Jeph Jerman school of noise creation, although often building pieces up to crescendos more along the lines of the metal bashers. Often a nice grimy sound, low on the high end, and as much electronic source as acoustic. More emphasis on sinister than bluster. At some stage I might listen to some of Mikkel Rørbo's post Alleypisser material, but right now this is enough for me. He was interviewed in SI #9.

I've also been revisiting a lot of his material in the last several weeks. Honestly if you like Alleypisser it's worth it to listen to the Knækkede Stemmer material, I like it more overall. The LP on Järtecknet, the Lust Vessel tape, and the one that I released are all excellent. A bit more developed but same ideas. He's working on some new material for the last while as well, which has been sounding promising.

Really need to top up my Alleypisser. Scanning bandcamp, I don't think I'd realized there was that much in existence. Love the rugged sound, I can see hear smell the Jerman airs though as Andrew McIntosh suggests much more composed / deliberate in execution. Will also echo the plugs for Knækkede Stemmer, which again feels much more directed and often all the better for it. Very glad to know there's more on the horizon.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

Bloated Slutbag

Mattias Gustafsson - Frusen Musik
Eight compositions for imaginary rooms, but perhaps not the sort of room you'd want to hang around in too long. Press play and close your eyes and don't blame me when things get more than a bit unsettling.

Thoughtful, considered ferric degenerations, unraveling unevenly through frigid subterranean passages, bare strains of music frozen and fractured, breaking off and tumbling into mercurial cracks and fissures to reveal, under lens of close introspection, still further fissures obscuring still further cracks. Somehow, it holds, or will hold, just, for the full sixty-five minute unraveling. An ill-fitted assemblage steeped at odd angles, but materially sound, rugged heavy duty chunks keeping things on track. So to say, not without a certain brutish quality. A genteel sort of brute, ill-coordinated, none-too-quick on the uptake but no less the lovable for it. See the poor bastard lurch and stagger in mildly concussed perplexity, half-deaf, half-blind, if not blind-drunk, to stumble in and out of the gutter, and then right back into the sewer. Where he belongs.

Here, deep down in the dregs, as the eyes become accustomed to the gloom, a pleasingly hideous plenitude of deformity looms dangerously close. Call it: microsonic muzak for concussed retards, interminably dragging through guttural gutter tones, broken machines, woozy bass-throb, rumpled magnetic tape stretched and spooling at different speeds, buckets of piss accidentally kicked and slopping over the edges.

The promo blurb name-checks Altar Of Flies, with some justification. This is a fair bit rougher than the last couple joints on B.A.A.D.M., and, again referencing the blurb, airs are shared with the Tapeworks, notably VII (Landmusik). The obvious AoF for sacrifice would of course be the recent full-lengths notably Rörelsen Mellan Rummen. Leaden quiver of mangled magnetic ribbon winds through waterlogged cave-like dwellings, muffled oscilla-belch and flits of discernible musical instrumentation dragged into widened chambers where sharpened industrial-grade metal scrape and the odd electronic hiccup occasionally unhinge otherwise unhurried proceedings. For the most part, however, this is very focused in atmosphere, the crushing brutality of the everyday apprehended in murky opacity, dangerously close but filtered through senses terminally dulled to, and by, the horror of it all. Buy that genteel brute another drink.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

HESalvo

#7782
Quote from: Bloated Slutbag on March 01, 2020, 07:46:59 AM
Quote from: totalblack on February 28, 2020, 11:27:35 AM
Quote from: Andrew McIntosh on February 28, 2020, 06:14:11 AM
Nice to see a few more people digging the drone. It's a bit of a love or hate thing I suppose.

Recently I've been getting back into the sounds of Alleypisser. Pretty much from the Jeph Jerman school of noise creation, although often building pieces up to crescendos more along the lines of the metal bashers. Often a nice grimy sound, low on the high end, and as much electronic source as acoustic. More emphasis on sinister than bluster. At some stage I might listen to some of Mikkel Rørbo's post Alleypisser material, but right now this is enough for me. He was interviewed in SI #9.

I've also been revisiting a lot of his material in the last several weeks. Honestly if you like Alleypisser it's worth it to listen to the Knækkede Stemmer material, I like it more overall. The LP on Järtecknet, the Lust Vessel tape, and the one that I released are all excellent. A bit more developed but same ideas. He's working on some new material for the last while as well, which has been sounding promising.

Really need to top up my Alleypisser. Scanning bandcamp, I don't think I'd realized there was that much in existence. Love the rugged sound, I can see hear smell the Jerman airs though as Andrew McIntosh suggests much more composed / deliberate in execution. Will also echo the plugs for Knækkede Stemmer, which again feels much more directed and often all the better for it. Very glad to know there's more on the horizon.

Alleypisser (and his other projects) has always been one of my absolute favorite analog/found sound manipulation artists. He layers it all so well. The Antonin Pagaille tape he did on Imminent Frequencies is a hidden gem too; great analog synth work without being "wanky" nor repetitive, just nicely inbetween.
I had an interview with him if you haven't read it, pretty interesting thoughts:
http://hesalvo.weebly.com/alley.html
HESALVO (formerly PureStench) : http://hesalvo.weebly.com

Andrew McIntosh

#7783
Took totalblack's advice and have been listening to Knækkede Stemmer for the last couple of days. Very much along the lines of the Alleypisser project, in fact. Perhaps a bit more sedate - "Med Tyste Stemmer & Lukkede Øjne", being mainly piano music, I wasn't expecting and am not sure how I feel about it. I think overall the project leans more towards acoustic sources? The baby crying sounds in "I et mellemrum" are an interesting challenge to listen to. Although that definitely sounds like a synth tone on the first unnamed piece of "Første Portræt (Et Hult Menneske)", and on the first part of "Angst", so obviously still mixed. Perhaps each sound is more defined in the recording/mixing. Anyway, this bloke knows what he's doing and deserves much credit for it.

EDIT - "Andet Portræt" might be my personal favourite of that collection. Nice, long, considered pieces.
Shikata ga nai.

CANONIC

K2 - Tekhnodrug

I had to listen to the first works of K2 since a long time. Tekhnodrug was released in 1993 and must be, unfortunately, one of the oldest recordings available (if someone has the recordings of 83/84 I'm interested!).
I was very positively surprised by the very industrial sound rather than noise. I don't know exactly what the relations between the Japanese scene and the European industrialist were, or how it all went so well, but the result is very good.
In fact one of the last things really good that I have listened to lately!
CANONIC's Bandcamp
http://canonic.bandcamp.com/